Indianizing Film

Price: $24.95  

Subtitle: Decolonization, the Andes, and the Question of Technology
Author: Freya Schiwy
Subject: Media, Anthropology, Latin American Studies  Literary Studies
Paper ISBN: 978-0-8135-4540-0
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8135-4539-4
Pages: 272 pages
Publication Date: May 2009
Series: New Directions in International Studies

Praise for Indianizing Film

"Schiwy's analysis of indigenous media contributes provocative, rich, close readings of several key concepts from Latin American literary and cultural studies, including: transculturation, literacy, testimonio, the lettered city, and global multiculturalism….Her compelling analysis of the thematic, discursive, and structural components of individual videos is nuanced and smart.."—Marcia Stephenson, Purdue University

Latin American indigenous media production has recently experienced a noticeable
boom, specifically in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia. Indianizing Film zooms in on a selection of award-winning and widely influential fiction and docudrama shorts, analyzing them in the wider context of indigenous media practices and debates over decolonizing knowledge. Within this framework, Freya Schiwy approaches questions of gender, power, and representation.

Schiwy argues that instead of solely creating entertainment through their work indigenous media activists are building communication networks that encourage interaction between diverse cultures. As a result, mainstream images are retooled, permitting communities to strengthen their cultures and express their own visions of development and modernization. Indianizing Film encourages readers to consider how indigenous media contributes to a wider understanding of decolonization and anticolonial study against the universal backdrop of the twenty-first century.

Freya Schiwy is an assistant professor in the media and cultural studies and Hispanic studies departments at the University of California, Riverside.